A friend (@ryanstats) asked me last night who I cheer for when the Pirates get knocked out of contention each year. At the time I told him that I don’t cheer for anyone else, but today I was toying around one of my spreadsheets and realized that I do cheer for another team. I cheer for whichever contending team has gone the longest without winning. Maybe it’s a kindred spirit I feel with that team’s fans, maybe it’s because I like to fill in empty slots on the page.

What you see below doesn’t take into account number of titles won. It’s just a simple average of the number of years since a franchise has won the World Series, made the postseason, etc. I’ve named that average “Beleagueredness.”

There are no real shockers on this list. The Cubs are the most beleaguered and the Yankees are the least, but I think the order has some surprises here and there.

Looks like I’ll be rooting for Texas and San Diego this postseason. Good luck to my fellow beleaguered fans!